Monserrate

Sunday morning we went to Monserrate, which is a pilgrimage site on top of the mountains. Our driver dropped us off at the little tram station. We bought the tickets and proceeded to board the tram. Now what I hadn't realized was that the tram went straight up the mountain. The train was specially built so it was kinda like stairs, so that when it was going up you weren't falling over. As we were riding up the mountainside we went through a very long tunnel. Now this tunnel was only a couple feet taller then the tram and well I am very claustrophobic so that was a little.....freaky. We arrived at the top off the mountain and were received by non-polluted air. It was amazing. I felt like I could breath again. We walked the rest off the way up to the church and arrived to a packed church.

Arriving at the church

 

Full Church

All the pews were full, the side and middle isles were full, between the sanctuary and the first pews was full, people were poring out of the doors. It was amazing. We waited around until the 10:30 mass when we crammed ourselves into the middle isle about halfway to the front. Mass was nice and we could tell that the sermon would have been a very good one if we could have understood it... Inside the church right above the alter was the the statue of the fallen Christ.

The Fallen Christ

After mass we walked down a little 18th century replica street. It was lined with street vendors selling little trinkets and food. We saw real typical Colombian food. Which I thought actually looked a little gross and smelled weird but that could just be my opinion. 

Entrance to the market

One of the Stations of the Cross that we walked by

 The view of Bogota, isn't it beautiful? 

Beautiful Arch

A waterfall wall

At this point it was about time to head back down the mountain so we started winding our way back trough the market and back to the tram station. But then, my family got lost (they may say I was the one who got lost but please don't believe them). After a while I finally found my family and told them what naughty people they were to go and get lost. We continued on our way to the Tram station and they almost got lost again! I do have to keep such a close eye on my family. Well, we finally arrived at the tram station without them getting lost anymore and took the tram down to the bottom of the mountain (just as freaky going down). The driver drove us back to Unicento ( the big mall that's 20 min from our hotel). Where we got lunch and shopped for some necessities and got ice cream. As we finished our ice cream we walked to the bus station where we planned to take a free bus back to our hotel. Well we looked at the sign to see how long we had to wait, the sign stated that there was no bus on Sunday. Well we all moaned and realized that we had to get ourselves back to the hotel with our own two feet. Well with a little protesting we walked back to our hotel arriving back at around 5 o'clock. We were all exhausted. We just crashed on the couch and sat there staring at the walls. That night we kids all crashed on my bed and watched a movie.

Monday...boring day, just did school, went to the park and I have Latin class soon (Skyping in for it). 

We will be leaving for Cartagena  and Santa Marta on Friday for ten days. When we get back we will probably have another week or so before we can go home. :( We are all very ready to be home now. But getting out of our "prison" will help greatly. ;)

<3

A long week

Oops just realized that I haven't updated you all since Sunday. sorry!
Well lets see... Monday and Tuesday we didn't do much, I didn't leave the hotel those two days. Still trying to get well and not go out in the pollution. Wednesday....ahh yes, Wednesday we joined a Venezuelan couple to go to the old town center. We saw some of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen. I don't have any pictures of the inside though. :( Apparently in Colombia it is seen as disrespectful to take pictures inside the churches. But here are a few pics of the outside of some of the churches.

Beautiful bell tower

This was a huge courtyard surrounded by Churches and state buildings

Stripey!!!

Yellow church

Courtyard with a beautiful blue sky and the mountains in the background

Oh and then we fed the pigeons! I haven't done that in forever. It was so funny to watch the kids 'cause mostly they wouldn't let the pigeons land on them. Oh and a warning: don't let pigeons land on your bare arm. It hurts. Anyhow here are some pictures.

Javier feeding some very greedy pigeons

This pigeon loved dad! it was like "I am never leaving you"

There were so many pigeons and they were all greedy

I stared into this pigeons eyes, named it 'Kevin' and fell in love :P

The whole family

(well except for the three that are missing...)

Thursday we went to a country club. Wow, I could see living like that. Being rich would be fun... but anyway we just went to use the pool, so no mani-pedi's or massages for me... ;( The night before we went we pulled out the swimsuits we had brought for the girls and they laughed. We had brought just one piece suites, and so my mom and I are looking at each other going "oh no, they want bikinis". But then the girls told us that only swimsuit models wear swimsuits like that! We were stunned. The girls wanted shorts with the suites. Now when you think of Colombian culture you don't really think overly modest to say the least but these girls are really modest. Anyway we went to the club and swam while they watched TV. The water was warm which was really nice cause I don't really do cold water...

In front of the country club

We had lunch there and then headed back to the hotel for little Francisco's 1st Birthday!

He and his new family have been here for six weeks and are hopefully very close to getting to go home. The party was really fun and the hotel had gotten a very, very special surprise present for Francisco........A band!

They played Colombian music while we danced and ate cake. It was so wonderful! Little Francisco just sat there the whole time a somber as a judge and looked a little dazed

The Colombian band with our family

Early this morning Annie and her baby Santiago left to go back home. We are so glad for them but we will miss them very much. The good news is that they live fifteen minutes from us so we will see them again!

Bye-bye Santi and Annie!

(pictured with Elizabeth)

Early this morning mum and dad took the kids back to Faca for our integration meeting with the defender of minors. Basically this is the meeting where everyone says that that the adoption will work and the kids decide that they want to be part of our family. Dominic and I stayed at the hotel so that we didn't have to ride in the car for the terrible 1 1/2 hour drive through traffic and car fumes. After this meeting we have nothing to do until sentencia (the final adoption) which won't be for a couple weeks (we have no idea how long but we hope only two). We are hoping to get away from Bogota as we are feeling kinda cooped up and the pollution is getting to all of us. I still have a nasty cold and a horrid cough which only get worse when we go out in the pollution so that is another reason to get away from here. We are all very much ready to go home, go back to our live and stop being on vacation. Please pray that the courts will put our case through quickly and that everything goes smoothly! Love you all!

<3

Usaquen Sunday Market

On Sunday we walked to a different part of Bogota about a half hour walk from our hotel for Mass and a street market. We arrived a little before time for Mass and walked around for a bit. When we got to the Church it was already extremely crowded, we barely found seats. Mass was beautiful but completely in Spanish so I only understood a little bit, but it was very beautiful. The Church was absolutely gorgeous! So amazing! Here are a few pictures of the church:

From the outside of Santa Barbara

The Beautiful inside of Santa Barbara

The alter area reminded us of the California missions

The church was almost bare everywhere except the alter

Santa Barbara church was built in 1665

After mass we went and walked around the street market, it was pretty cool. There were so many vendors selling so many beautiful things. It was hard not to buy everything! We wandered around the market and then through a little more of that area of the city and saw a few cool buildings. 
I thought this was the coolest thing ever! It was a restaurant with Tomato plants growing in the windows. 

SO AWESOME!

This was just a really pretty hotel that caught my mum's eye, we liked how you could see the stairs in the windows.

Hotel Hillhouse

Cool Irish pub

Look at the statue on top of the restaurant!

We also saw this statue that really, really freaked me out. We were just looking at it and mum was like "wow that is a really lifelike statue!" and I kinda poked it and said "yeah that's cause they used real clothes" and then.....................IT MOVED! Ok, I admit I screamed a little (others would say a lot but don't believe them). Dad put some money in it's container and it started moving, chopping wood, and then the really creepy part... It started winking and batting it's eyelashes at me. It was a rather new experience to me to have a statue flirting with me...kinda just a little weird....well maybe a lot weird... here are a couple of pictures of it.

Well it was a very fun and exiting day, by the time we started the long walk home we all were tired and our feet hurt. I was beginning to get a headache and the pollution was really bugging me, but I was just kind of ignoring it cause I must just be hungry or something. Well we got home but then after dinner we watched a movie and the whole time I was progressively getting worse, by bed time I had a horrid headache and the worst sore throat. I woke up in the middle of the night to get some water, but there wasn't any. The water wouldn't turn on. I tried both sinks in our bathroom and the one in our kitchenette but there just wasn't any water. I was starting to think maybe I was just dreaming, I could imagine that I would dream something like that but I pinched myself and sure enough I was awake. My parents woke up and were just as weirded out about there not being water as I was but they just got me a water bottle and we went back to bed. I didn't sleep much more that night and woke up feeling just as terrible. We found out that the water pipe had broken in the middle of the night and the whole hotel didn't have any water. It's after 10am now and we still don't have water. We're all just drinking bottled water and praying that the water will be fixed soon. Wait...wait....ALLELUIA! the water is back on! 

I don't know what the family is doing today but I know I don't plan to leave the hotel. Just stay here and rest. I just heard that one of the other people in the hotel had the same thing I have for a couple of weeks. I better not be sick for that long. One day is long enough. I'm drowning myself in vitamins and trying to rest. The kids are all playing with Nerf guns and mostly leaving me alone so I hopefully will have some time to sleep. 

<3

Presentation!

Wednesday the thirteenth of February, a date that will forever be held dear in my heart.  We all got up super early to drive to the nearby town of Faca where the kids have been living. It was a long drive, about an hour and a half. The roads in Colombia are....um....not like American roads...um....well....lots of potholes and um.....yeah.... You kind of feel beat up after that long of a drive... :/ When we arrived in Faca we went to the adoption place (yeah, I don't really know exactly what it was... :P) We met with their social worker, defender of minors, nutrition person (don't know what to call her), Cecilia (our representative) and our lawyer. They gave us a little more information about the kids and answered all of our questions. After the meeting was over everyone helped decorated the room...

...and then stood there waiting for what felt like forever.

 At this point we were all getting pretty nervous and a little emotional. Finally they said the kids had arrived and asked if we were ready. They showed them in, our first glimpse of our new family members.

Well we were all emotional at this point but I must admit that I was actually crying (a lot), I think the kids thought I was a little weird... :P Anyway after I had stopped crying and we had all calmed down a little we tried to talk, anything we couldn't say in Spanish Cecilia would translate. We ate cake (Cheesecake, yum! :P) while we talked (well sorta talked...mostly laughed and looked at each other awkwardly. :P)

Elizabeth

Ana Sophia

Javier

 Once our 'party' was over we commenced the long trek back to the hotel, oh and it was long. As we drove back Javier and Sophia were trying to learn a little English. Elizabeth was mostly sleeping. When we arrived at the hotel the staff and other adoptive families had a little party for us! They had a cake and a sign that said "welcome Elizabeth, Ana Sophia and Javier Scofield". It was so sweet of them! 
It amazed me how fast they settled into calling us "Mother", "Father", "Brother" and "Sister" and they say it with such a cute accent! Javier is constantly chattering at me in Spanish, I just smile, nod, maybe say a "si" here and there and look cute...works pretty well. :P  Sophia is very good at understanding our Spanish and passing it on to the other two. 
Elizabeth know a very little bit of English so we can talk a little bit between my "un poco" Spanish and her "very little" English. :) Whenever we go out for a walk she puts her arm through mine and we walk arm in arm.

Over the next couple of days we've just been walking to mass, to the store and to the park. The kids are starting to pick up English and are doing very well. It is going to be a huge hard adjustment for them as they were in school and now they will be homeschooled. But I think it will all work out. When I think about it to much I just get overwhelmed. 
It's been a pretty big adjustment for me too, Ever since Hannah went to collage I've been pretty much alone. I had so much time to myself, and just kinda did my own thing. Now I am never alone. I am constantly with people and talking and never just being quiet. It's very different but I think it's what I wanted. As they settle in and things begin to have a routine I'm sure everything will calm down and we will all get less overwhelmed.I am very glad we are adopting them and I love them so much. They already feel like my little siblings and it would be weird if they weren't here.

P.S. If you have any specific questions or things you want to hear about just comment to let me know and I will attempt to answer. 

<3

“I’m leaving on a jet plane…

…I don’t know when I’ll be back again.”

From Miami:

Well we've begun our trip. We left Portland last night and didn't arrive in Miami until 6:30am (3:30am Portland time). The Miami airport is pretty awesome. The floor is decorated with shells and the walls with fish. As I write this I’m looking out a window at a blue sky with puffy clouds, there are a couple palm trees and I can even see some sand. It’s about 70 degrees outside at 6:30am. I think I could stay here forever!  Well ok maybe not, I just heard they have roaches… :P Well I’m pretty tired, I only got about an hour of sleep last night so at the moment I’m stifling yawns and wishing for my bed.

My mum and I are alternating between being completely freaked out and extremely happy about the adoption. Every time we think about the fact that we’re adding three new children to our family who don’t speak any English, we freak out. Every time we think about how amazing it’s going to be we get really excited. My dad and Dominic? Well, they must just not be as emotional as me and my mum… ;)

Later from Bogota:

Well the last flight was uneventful, we landed got all our bags went through customs and were met by our driver, Freddie. He's super nice and speaks English so he was telling us about all the stuff we passed. Oh yeah and Colombians are crazy! Basically the only traffic rules they obey are lights and speed limits all the other rules are just considered "good suggestions". On a two lanes road you might have three cars driving side by side. All the cars just weave in and out rarely staying in one lane for more then a few minutes, the motorcycles just drive right in between the cars, kinda scary if your not used to it but all the Colombians seem perfectly fine with it. Every single flat surface is covered in graffiti, it's just everywhere! 

Apologies if this is a little scattered…apparently I need my beauty sleep… :P

<3

Are we crazy? :)

My mind is numb. I don't think the full reality of the adoption dawned on me until last night. All through the many months of paperwork etc. I guess I didn't really think about it much. It was just this cool thing that might happen. Then a few weeks ago when we got the presentation date it was like "Wow, I'm gonna have new little siblings! :) :) :)" but still it wasn't very real. Then late last night my mum and I were driving home just talking about what we needed to pack when when everything became really real. I almost started hyperventilating "What are we doing? We're leaving the country for six weeks to return with three complete strangers who don't speak a word of English!? Are we crazy?" Now don't get me wrong, I am still more then ever excited but I think last night was the first time I really realized what we are doing. I realized that I have a crazy family. I love it! :) I think this is the best thing that will ever happen to me and I can't wait to meet them in five days! (eeks!)

Now enough of my feelings. :P Quick update: We got a email from our adoption counselor she had just heard from the kids social worker, the kids had requested that we bring balloons and decorations to the presentation, they would bring cake and soda. They wanted to have a party! Our adoption counselor said this was a request they had never heard before! It sounds like the kids are as exited as I am. That's been one of my big questions all along, what did they think? Are they exited? I do believe they are. :)

We'll be leaving for Colombia this Sunday. Our flight is at 7:30 pm (our time) and we won't get into Bogota until 1:10 pm (their time, 10:10 our time) a 14 hour 40 minute flight. We are going to be so tired when we get there, I don't even like to think about it. :/

<3